Saturday, October 11, 2014

Medical School: Round 2

I’m sure you could tell from the distinct lack of posts over
the past couple of months, but second year has started. In fact, we’re already
about half-way through the semester and in the middle of our week-long fall
break (the existence of which is probably one of my favorite things about
Loyola). Finally, a chance to catch my breath.

Our pace has essentially doubled compared to first year. For
example, last year we had about one test per month per class, and each test
covered maybe 20-25 lectures. Not too bad, really. This year, though, we've had
a test every two weeks, with each test covering about the same amount of
lectures. So that’s been fun.

As I've talked about previously, the first year at Loyola –
especially the first half – is sort of a hodge-podge of classes meant to get
everyone up to speed and then cover some of the fundamentals. We started off
with two classes that ran for about a month covering behavioral sciences and
basic cell biology/genetics, followed by anatomy, and then picked up after
winter break with physiology and added in immunology near the end of the spring
semester. All throughout the year, we had our patient-centered medicine course
(which covered things like patient interviews, basic physical exam skills, and
various other topics that didn't quite fit in elsewhere).

Second year is a bit more systematic. We essentially have
two courses – pathophysiology and pharmacology – that run simultaneously and
complement each other throughout the year. So, for example, right now we are
learning cardiac pathophysiology and also learning the relevant cardiac pharmacology
as we go along. And of course we still have our patient-centered medicine
course that runs throughout the first three years.

Although it’s been busier, the actual information has been
quite a bit more interesting. Also, I’ve finally given up on going to classes.
I essentially went to classes religiously all throughout first year, except for
the last few weeks when my wife had our son. This year, though, keeping up on
studying while also making sure that I can take evenings and most weekends off
means that time has become even more of a precious commodity, and the time
spent going back and forth from school, waiting in between classes, etc., could
be better spent.

So, to try and be a bit more efficient, I purposely put
myself a day behind so that I watch the previous day’s lectures each morning.
The advantage of that is that I can get started a bit earlier than classes
actually would normally start – and thus finish my day earlier as well. So far,
it’s working out pretty well. I usually have to go in once or twice a week or
so for various small groups and things, but that’s fine.

As far as resources go, I HIGHLY recommend Pathoma for
pathology and SketchyMicro for microbiology, at least for the bacteria.
Incredibly helpful. I’m still using Anki – I’m trying to really only make cards
for so-called “high-yield” information. I’m basically converting the Pathoma
lectures into cards, along with stuff from First Aid as we cover it, plus
whatever information from lectures I think is worth including. Hopefully this
will all come in handy for Step 1 – which, really, is not all that far away at
this point. More than that, though, my hope is that this will drill this information
in for the long term. We’ll see.

My son is about five months old now, and really starting to
develop his own little personality. He’s also growing like a weed – he’s a
little over twenty pounds and fitting into twelve month clothes now. Still not
quite sleeping through the night, but hopefully that will come soon. Hopefully.

Although things have been busier, it’s been a good year so
far. I’m thoroughly enjoying the time off with my family, and finally having the
opportunity to catch up on all those little things that get pushed to the back
burner when life gets crazy.